WASHINGTON – The Alliance to Save Energy released the following statement from Vice President Ben Evans in response to the EPA’s final determination to revise the greenhouse gas emission standards for 2022-2025 model year light-duty vehicles:

“Weakening the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards would mean higher fuel costs for individuals and businesses, more greenhouse gas emissions and sacrificing our energy security. There’s no good reason for these standards to be sabotaged.”

“CAFE standards are one of the most effective and flexible tools we have for saving energy. The MY 2017-2025 CAFE standards for passenger cars and light trucks were a product extensive stakeholder dialogue, and they were expected to save more than $1.7 trillion in fuel costs and deliver more than $8,000 in fuel savings over the lifetime of each vehicle by 2025. They were also estimated to reduce our oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day by 2025 – roughly half the oil the United States imports from OPEC daily. Any weakening of these standards means setting ourselves backward and sticking Americans with higher fuel costs.”

“Already, Europe, China, Japan, and Korea have more stringent fuel economy standards than the United States, and they are moving to aggressively increase them. The standards announced in 2011 were set to turn the United States from a laggard to a leader and they supported our global competitiveness. U.S. consumers and businesses, along with our health, energy security and prosperity, could be the losers here if the standards are weakened.”

About the Alliance to Save Energy

Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a nonprofit, bipartisan alliance of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders working to expand the economy while using less energy. Our mission is to promote energy productivity worldwide – including through energy efficiency – to achieve a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security, affordability and reliability.

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